Week In Security: Internet Threat Report, Earnings Warnings

Here's a rundown of some of the events, announcements and other happenings in security last week:

Hybrid threats continue to pose a major risk on the Internet, according to a report issued by Internet Security Systems. Atlanta-based ISS said it monitored more than 7 million hybrid-related attacks in the first quarter of this year. Hybrid threats, such as the Nimda worm, use a variety of methods to infect systems.

ISS also said that nearly 70 percent of all attacks it monitored in the first quarter used port 80, the common port for Web traffic. Also, the company's X-Force research team uncovered and documented more than 537 new software vulnerabilities.

Citing a weak economy and sluggish IT sales, Check Point Software Technologies, SonicWall and RSA Security all warned that first-quarter earnings would fall short of estimates.

Firewall technology is the preferred method of network protection for companies that are becoming more security-conscious, according to a survey by In-Stat/MDR, a Scottsdale, Ariz.-based market-research firm. Larger companies favor hardware-based firewall solutions while smaller companies tend to use software-based solutions, the firm said. VPNs are popular in the enterprise, but respondents overall were reluctant to outsource security, the survey showed.

Websense, San Diego, unveiled a new version of its Internet filtering software, Websense Enterprise v4.4 and Websense Reporter v6.3. New features of the software package include remote transparent user identification, enhanced user/group support, and Internet browse-time reports

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